If you ask most people who are overweight or unhealthy, they will tell you that they want to get rid of the excess weight or start living a healthier lifestyle. However in many cases their aspirations are often followed with qualifying statements such as, “after the holidays,” “at the beginning of the month,” “next week,” “as soon as I finish (fill in the blank),”… Sound familiar?

The fact is that many of us associate pain or sacrifice with living a healthier lifestyle, so it’s only natural that we will try to postpone that pain as long as possible. The trick to getting started on the journey to your transformation- immediately– is to associate more pain with being unhealthy than you do with the process of getting fit.

The tipping point:

When asked how they did it, people who have been successful at transforming their bodies and completely changing their lifestyles often state that they reached a tipping point. A point where the pain of continuing to live an unhealthy lifestyle outweighed (pardon the pun) the pain and sacrifice required to achieve and maintain their health. In many cases the tipping point was a simple event: getting winded walking up the stairs, outgrowing another pair of pants, being unable to play with the kids or grand kids, or simply seeing a holiday picture and finally realizing just how unhealthy they had actually become. While for others it was more serious: a heart attack, or perhaps the death of a friend or family member due to poor health. Whatever the event, no matter how big or small, it caused these individuals to take the most important step in their journey. In that moment, they decided that they were no longer willing to accept their current situation and that they were going to make changes immediately.

This is the point that you MUST get to if you want to have a truly successful journey. Make a list of the things that you can’t do or that are extremely difficult for you to do as a result of your unhealthy body and pick out the one or two things that you are no longer willing to accept. Think of the pain that these things cause in your life and associate that pain with your unhealthy weight/lifestyle. Now be unwilling to accept this pain for another day and be willing to do whatever it takes to get rid of it. Finally affirm your decision by stating it out loud:

“Starting NOW I will no longer allow myself to feel like this or suffer from things that are within my ability to control. Starting NOW I will make the changes necessary to conquer this pain and enjoy the life that I was intended to live.”

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Entrepreneur, business consultant, speaker, marketing professional, programmer, trainer, and wellness advocate with a passion for education. I truly believe in the power of the human spirit and our ability to overcome any adversity when we summon the better angels of our nature to work together toward making the world a better place.